MONDAY September 27
Brighter Future comment
Many people are asking how I can possibly predict a brighter future given the worsening state of the world. Atrocities though, are nothing new. We are just becoming more aware of them now. That actually suggests more light, shining on the darkness. Millions marched against the war in Iraq. That too, was a glimmer above the horizon, suggesting a new dawn on the way. Even if our governments continue to cultivate conflict, they won't stop a more enlightened era from arriving. But by drawing curtains of deception and denial, we may just manage to shut out the light a little longer..
TUESDAY September 28
No Thought for the DayWEDNESDAY September 29
Asteroid Toutatis comment
We are assured by the experts that Asteroid Toutatis will not collide with us today. It will, they insist, miss us by a million miles, so we are safe to ignore the gloom-mongers on the internet who prophesise an end to it all by teatime. Yet I can't let the occasion pass without acknowledging one good thing about this wave of fear. If it causes just one person to remember what a precious gift life is, or if it leads any of us to make peace with our enemies, it may yet have had a very positive purpose.
THURSDAY September 30
Asteroid Toutatis - Part 2 comment
Asteroid Toutatis has missed us after all. Phew! Actually, last weekend, I found a book from 1981 titled We Have Only Eighteen Years Left. It insisted that the world was going to end in 1999. The chap in the second hand shop then showed me another book, dating from the 1830s, insisting that the 20th century would never arrive. It seems people have been expecting the end of the world, ever since the world began! The next big, scary date is 2012, when the Mayan calendar is due to 'run out'. After which... there will no doubt be another.